People will try to play this down but Gers were quality all over park..add three or four new faces and they can stop nine
They strangled the life out of Celtic with their high press and that’s where the opener started from
RANGERS just set the bar for next season with this display of utter dominance over Celtic.
Now the challenge is to keep building the momentum to prove they can do it for an entire league campaign.
All over the pitch, man for man, this was as good a performance as we’ve seen by any Rangers team in recent years.
While I thought they were also great in the previous Ibrox Old Firm showdown on January 29, this one was probably even more impressive because it was more than just blood and thunder.
Don’t get me wrong, there was passion alright and they got in Celtic’s faces from the start – but I thought yesterday there was a real composure. They were calm in possession, moved it quickly and passed it well.
They were superior to Celtic in every area of the pitch and played at such a high tempo that made Celtic really uncomfortable right from the first whistle. That was their game plan and they followed it to a tee.
Let’s be clear. Over the next few days you’ll hear a lot of people try to play down the significance of this win and try to explain it away as Celtic having “an off day”.
No, Rangers made them have an off day. They made sure that Celtic weren’t at it thanks to their game plan.
From the first whistle the energy levels jumped out at me straight away and I thought, “here we go, this is promising”.
Obviously it helps when you get off to a great start with the early goal. That automatically gives you that extra bit of confidence. But you could already see enough in their start to see that Rangers were up for it and their game plan was spot on.
They strangled the life out of Celtic with their high press and that’s where the opening goal started from.
Pressing down Mikael Lustig in possession, under pressure he’s ended up conceding the free-kick that James Tavernier put away.
When you show the energy levels to press high up the pitch you get your rewards and that’s exactly what happened.
From such a quality team performance it’s hard to pick a man of the match because every single one of them was good. But I would go for either Scott Arfield or Glen Kamara.
Arfield took his goal well and that position, coming in off the flank, clearly suits him. His timing of runs is different class and his experience shows through.
But Kamara is arguably even more impressive in the sense of how quickly he has settled into this team having been signed from a struggling Dundee team with no shortage of doubters.
When I watched Dundee he was always the player who caught the eye in terms of getting on the ball and passing it but it’s hard when you’re playing in a toiling team.
I thought he’d need time to settle but he has just fitted in and looked like he’s been part of that team for a number of years. He’s really elegant on the ball, I really like him.
The second goal reflected his class – great wee turn, lovely ball into Jermain Defoe for the dummy and then obviously Arfield finished it brilliantly.
But every one of them could be proud of themselves yesterday – and now they need to build on it. The standard has been set – the next challenge is to keep living up to it. This season they have
shown vast improvement, particularly in the last month since Defoe came in with Alfredo Morelos suspended and the system was tweaked to accommodate him.
Since then I’ve seen a flow to their play and they seem to really enjoy it but they can’t rest on their laurels.
They need to finish off strong again down at Rugby Park, then enjoy the break and come back in ready to go again.
If they play like that then add three or four quality players to the team there’s a good chance Rangers will be successful next year. I’ve no doubt about that.
Celtic will say this result doesn’t set down a marker for next year but the most worrying thing for them will be the dominance of that Rangers performance.
It doesn’t help when you don’t know who your manager is going to be. Is Neil Lennon going to be getting it or not? He can only go in and do his job until he’s told otherwise. But I’m just looking at Rangers and the vast improvement they’ve made this year. They just need to kick on and keep improving. A few weeks ago the chairman said he’s going to back the manager in the transfer market and that’s great news for the fans. When you look at that team and then add three or four quality players to that they’ll have a great chance.